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The Punnett_Monkey is a Java program written by Harrell Lee
Sellers. The author retains copyright.
Just choose the genes for the male and female parents by clicking the
buttons. You will click through a list of chicken genes in the order in which
they appear in the tables of genes. You must select two genes for each
parent and the genes should be for the same trait.
The sex-linked genes are first in the gene list. If you choose a sex-linked gene
for the female, you must select the dash, -, for the other female gene.
The plus sign indicates the wild-type gene. The 'hat' or shift-6 indicates a
superscript.
Just try it! Select the four genes! If you make a mistake,
just press your refresh button and start over. If you get tired of
clicking through the gene list, please try the "Advanced" Punnett_Monkey.
The "advanced" Punnett_Monkey will do the Punnett square for up to 4
simultaneous traits and give percentages, and you choose the genes you want by
selecting them from a table.
Now all you have to do is click on the Do Punnett Square button. The genes are separated by a slash,
which is a common notation. I use the dash notation to represent the female
sex-chromosome, the W chromosome. I don't use 'W' as some people do because 'W'
is also a gene symbol and that can be confusing. Separating the gene symbols
with a slash then avoids having to write genotypes like b+- (it would be written
here as b+ / -).
The
gene combinations you will have in your chicks are shown in the blue 'quadrants'
of the Punnett square. Each one of the four quadrants represents 25% of the
chicks. If some of the gene pairs are the same (the order of writing the genes
in the gene pairs makes no difference), then add the two percentages together.
Try making a sex-link bird! Breed a red male to a silver female. Give
the female the genes S and - (dash) and give the male two gold genes, s+. The
chicks that inherit the dash are the females! What color are the males and
females in this cross? Now turn it around. Mate a red female (genes s+ and dash)
with a silver male (two S genes). What color are the male and female chicks now?